Sarah Koenig and Julie Snyder, executive producers of Serial, with Ira Glass, producer of This American Life.
Photograph: Meredith Heuer/This American Life

The podcasts others want to copy

This American Lifespawned myriad shows featuring true life stories produced classily, and still remains hard to beat. Radiolab weaves science with audio production that one can only dream of emulating. WTF leads the flock of comedians interviewing other celebs, because host Marc Maron is so frank about the trail of destruction in his life, his guests can’t help but be the same.

Ones to make you feel cleverer

Listen to Bullseye so you can pretend you’re fully abreast with what’s happening in popular culture. Little Atoms makes you feel like you’ve read a big book in an hour. In No Such Thing As a Fish, the QI elves drop so many facts, your head will spin. 99% Invisible opens your eyes to architecture and design around you. On The Media and its spin-off TLDR (onthemedia.org) will feed you interesting tidbits about media and tech.

Interviews

It’s the best interview format of all time, and now you can download some 1,500 back episodes from the past seven decades of Desert Island Discs. Getting Better Acquainted features longform interviews with non-celebs, because everybody has a story.

In Betty In The Sky With a Suitcase, the peerlessly charming flight attendant Betty travels the world, gathering high-altitude stories from pilots and crew. If I were a parent, listening to other parents vent on One Bad Mother would really cheer me up. And even though I’m not one, it still does.

And when I really can’t decide what to listen to, I turn on Dinner Party Download, because it has a bit of everything: history, comedy, food, drink, interviews, etiquette, music.